(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger’s website on July 29.)
NEWARK, N.J. — After frantically reshuffling trains throughout the weekend, NJ Transit managed to run a regular rail schedule yesterday without major incident even though 91 of its passenger cars were out of service for emergency repairs.
NJ Transit cut back the number of cars on about 10 Northeast Corridor Line trains, while its mechanics worked around the clock to fix the 91 Arrow III cars, said agency spokeswoman Lynn Bowersox. Weekend inspections had found flaws in the cars’ equipment that prevents power surges, a defect that could cause wheels to overheat.
A wheel on the same model car overheated two weeks ago, causing a derailment in Secaucus. The problems with surge protection in the 91 cars — about 13 percent of the agency’s passenger fleet — have prompted NJ Transit to review its initial findings that the damage from debris on the tracks triggered the derailment.
The agency has hired two consulting firms to check the equipment and has been consulting with experts from other railroads, said New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere.
“If we finally got to the root of the problem, I want the experts to tell us that,” Lettiere said.
NJ Transit spent about $325,000 on equipment to make emergency repairs on the Arrow cars and has not yet tabulated the overtime cost of deploying scores of rail workers over the weekend.
Several commuters said their trains ran smoothly yesterday morning. But Colleen Ryan had the misfortune of hopping a 5:48 a.m. Northeast Corridor train in Elizabeth that was two cars short.
“Because it was so early, I thought I had a fighting chance of a decent ride in,” Ryan said. “Forget it. We were packed in like rats.”
Tom Groppe said the Morris and Essex Line train he boarded at Short Hills at about 7:27 a.m. was a mess.
“There were beer cans everywhere and food on the floors and on the seats,” Groppe said. “It was like a garbage dump.”
Agency officials said some trains may not have been cleaned over the weekend in the scramble to rearrange passenger cars to compensate for the 91 Arrows taken out of service.
NJ Transit expects to put the cars back on the tracks at a rate of about six per day.